I’ve narrowed it down to three.
Airplane! had me laughing before the opening credits and kept me laughing all the way through.
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan was such a relief after the first ST movie, and Ricardo Montalban’s Khan is still one of the great movie villains.
Star Wars (no episode number, no subtitle, just Star Wars) had the entire theater cheering, booing, and generally acting like happy 10-year olds, even though I was in my mid-20s when it came out.
The Blues Brothers, no question. I have a Chicago soul.
Someone else mentioned Fury Road. I enjoyed that one a lot.
Guardians of the Galaxy was another very enjoyable movie for me too.
Where I went to college, the school owned the town’s movie theatre, so the activity pass you’d buy for each trimester included a “pass” to see each movie that came to town.
I used my activity pass, of course, to see “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.” I went back to the theatre the next night and bought a ticket with my own money out of my nearly empty poor-college-student wallet to see it again.
Beat The Devil. If you don’t find the combination of Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Robert Morley and Jennifer Jones entertaining, I don’t know what to tell ya.
For me, it’s a tie between Casablanca and Victor/Victoria.
Yes, I know there’s no similarity between them.
Probably Raiders of the Lost Ark for me. I’m probably forgetting some biggies, though.
The first Iron Man movie. Back when the Marvel movies were a fresh concept, and you didn’t quite know what to expect, I remember it was such a pleasant, brilliant surprise. The writing was clever, Downey Jr. owned the role and it just… worked. I don’t think I ever left a theater so happy.
Also this is a weird one, but The Graduate. It was made well before my time, so I wasn’t sure I would get much out of it. I was hanging off the edge of my sofa I was so into it, and when they nailed the ending with that final shot, I actually got up and did a fist pump. Loved that movie.
If limited to Hong Kong movies imo Peking Opera Blues was the most entertaining followed by God of Gamblers 2. the Swordsman franchise and the original Green Snake.
I’ll go with Live and Let Die. Just a fun Bond film with great music. When I was young, Roger Moore was James Bond, the Connery ones would be shown on TV but the Moore ones were newer.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum
Killing people with horses is the very definition of entertainment.
His Girl Friday
Kind Hearts and Coronets
Princess Bride
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Galaxy Quest
Probably one of the Pixar films: I think the Incredibles may be the most entertaining one.
Hands down. I hadn’t even heard of the movie when a friend comes over, nearly grabs me by the collar and says, “we’re going to the movies” to that movie. I remember when Wallace is is drunkenly stumbling trying to shoot Willis missing and shooting pedestrians I was softly going “omigod omigod omigod” and my friend was, “I know, right?” Holy shit that movie was weird as hell in first run watched cold.
This - Galaxy Quest - was my very first thought, it was just great from beginning to end.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World. It’s the only time I’ve ever looked at my watch during a film specifically to see how little time remained - Oh no! There’s only half an hour left!
Mulholland Drive. I went to see it with a friend who insisted we go so that we could puzzle over its meaning together. Yes, there are some scenes that drag on a bit (the parts that were shot for a series that was never made), and of course anything directed by David Lynch is going to have some excessive weirdness. That said, it’s probably the best acting I’ve seen in my life (mostly Naomi Watts), and the atmosphere created (tension through the use of lighting and music) is also unparalleled, in my opinion. The depth and intensity kind of remind me of a stew or sauce or something made with a heavily caramelized fond.
Memento is another that I had to see several times, and The Shawshank Redemption is another one with lots of atmosphere (richness through photography and script).
And your heart was an open book?
My first thought was Pulp Fiction, mostly for the dialogue. I had never heard anything so consistently fresh.
Then I thought of Fargo, for similar reasons.
But I think I’m going to go with Toy Story for pure entertainment. Original, well-written, clever, and, yeah, entertaining.
mmm
The first one that came to mind was seeing “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in the theater. I had at least seen Monty Python before, but I was 12 years old and this some kind of new level of delightful insanity.
A Knight’s Tale.
A second vote for Airplane!–for just a solid hour of entertaining fun… An evening of “no-need-to-think-about-why-it’s-fun, just laugh-out-loud-with everybody-else-in-the-audience” style of fun.
But for enjoyable entertainment of the “higher-quality-- think about it while you’re laughing” style:
Monty Pythons’s Life of Brian.*
It has everything from slapstick physical comedy to serious satire.
(.And also contains a brief cameo of the most realistic Jesus ever.)